


The Borrowers Adjudged

by Rosencrantz



Category: The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Herding Cats, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 08:23:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2222205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A cat may look at a king, but it can also look at very alarmed Borrowers. Tiny people, tiny problems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Borrowers Adjudged

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Deepdarkwaters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deepdarkwaters/gifts).



> Brushes used were made by [Etoile-du-Nord](http://etoile-du-nord.deviantart.com/).
> 
> Thank you to my betas, [Snacky](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Snacky/pseuds/Snacky) and [Moriann](http://archiveofourown.org/users/moriann)!

> Can ye judge a man, (quoth I), by his looking?  
>  What, a cat may look on a king, ye know!
>
>>   
> _The Proverbs And Epigrams Of John Heywood_ , 1562

It happened when Arrietty was four. Eugenie Flannery, the current and, as it would turn out, short-lived maid, had found the thing outside half starved and taken to bringing out milk and bits of leftovers for the creature. She had even named it. 'Pudding.' Homily would later say that was the only sweet thing about it.

Pudding was a tabby kitten. She was strictly an outdoor kitten, as Mrs. Driver wouldn't have Pudding inside, which meant the kitten did not feature into the lives of the Clocks until a bit of wall gave one day after quite a lot of rainfall, and Pudding became an indoor cat. So indoors, in fact, that she was actually an in-the-walls and under-the-floors cat.

There were still other Borrowers in the house at this time. A few lingering Overmantles, the Harpsichords, the Clocks, and even little Eggletina, were still among the small unknown residents of the home.

Which was why it was a state of emergency when Pudding was first discovered.

The problem with cats is that they are contrary, to say nothing of the persistence of kittens. You could drive a rat off with pointed sticks and some effort - they were smart! They knew where to go and had better things to do than deal with pointy food. But a cat! A kitten! All that Pudding would do when faced with the Borrowers' first offensive was demonstrate that a cat well into its teenage months was more than a match for a Borrower's makeshift weapons.

To add insult to injury, Pudding would somehow manage to convey in her cattish way that the Borrowers were a _disappointment_ as potential dinners went.

There had been no casualties beyond Uncle Hendreary's torn shirt and Eustav Harpischord's twisted ankle so far in the Great Pudding War, but it was only a matter of time before the kitten became very hungry, and tiny shouty food became very tempting.

Pudding was not a cat that meowed. Which meant that the entire big household had no idea there was a cat in the walls. Poor Eugenie Flannery, she would sit in the kitchen and talk of the little kitten.

"I'd meant to take it with me, when my boy Hargrave was ready to propose. A little house and a little mouser. Poor little thing, it must have thought it'd be out there in the winter weather and scooted off to better pastures," she'd say over her tea break.

"Probably an owl or a dog got it," Mrs. Driver would say without pity.

"Oh, don't say that!" Eugenie would cry.

Pod, who happened to be in the kitchen wall for the latest iteration of this conversation (waiting for his chance to claim teatime's leftovers) thought to himself, _'If only you knew,'_ but he couldn't very well leave a note.

Or _could_ he.

When he got home carrying a whole quarter of a crumpet with a dollop of clotted cream on it, he was pensive. He scarcely noticed Homily and Lupy having a row in his own tiny kitchen as he dropped off the food.

"Now, Lupy, I didn't _say_ it were you that showed that cat how to get in. I just _said_ that I know you had a habit of walking out by that way and maybe the cat smelled you," said Homily through clenched teeth.

Lupy stood up abruptly. "I've got my family to tend to and you should think of tending your own, Homily Clock!" she said and strode out, just barely missing Pod.

"Getting on then?" said Pod as he sketched out plans with a scrap of valuable spare paper and a piece of lead.

"She's got no sense of responsibility, Pod!" said Homily. "Going about, letting in all sorts, and claiming it was pure chance!"

"Mhm. Homily, meow for me."

"Excuse me?" said Homily, cut-off mid-rant.

"Meow. Like a cat. Loud as you can."

Flustered, Homily said in a normal speaking voice, "Mew."

Arrietty, sensing she no longer had to have quiet playtime while grown-ups visited, poked her head into the kitchen.

Pod shook his head. "No, Homily, louder! I know you can. You've got a great set of lungs in you."

"I don't know what you're getting at, Pod, but fine!" said Homily.

"Come on now, Homily!"

# "MEOW"

Arrietty squeaked and fell back. Pod quickly went to scoop up his little daughter, holding her against his side. "You hear that? Your mama's just the perfect person for a job I've got, Arrietty."

The first part of the plan was getting the cat directly within the walls of the kitchen. There were no holes for it to fit through, and Crampfurl had fixed the way outside, but Pod explained they could work with it.

The Borrowers who had been in charge of keeping an eye on the cat were relieved.

"It's awful, Pod," said Mickel. "It just stares at us! Even when we know it can't sees us, it just stares right at us. We've been throwing food like the others said, but it don't go away when it's had enough!"

"It's no good for a Borrower to be watched like that!" added Hendreary. "It's not right."

It had been decided early on that starving the cat out made it just more likely to seek out Borrowers for dinner, and it was uncannily good at spotting Borrower attempts to put it down. Which meant that Pod's plan was met with favour.

"The left wall of the kitchen's where we got to get it. We ain't got nothing there," said Pod as he laid out his plans. "We get it there and then I'm going to need you boys dragging your tools on the walls while Homily shouts up a storm. We've got to have it in there by teatime and then the humans should do the work for us."

"What'll stop it from following us out and them taking up the whole kitchen then?" asked Mickel.

"We'll block the way out. From there it's up to fate what happens to the cat, but we done our best," said Pod.

A bit of beef was fetched from the kitchen. It was a risky business as it was that night's supper and of much regret to the Borrowers who would have much liked a spot of beef for dinner, and wasn't it such a waste to use it on such a thing as _Pudding_?

Pod said he'd take on the luring, as it was his plan.

The next day, fifteen minutes before tea break (which was always held at the exact same time by Mrs. Driver so she could keep an eye on the maids; she felt a tight schedule kept away slacking), the Borrowers in charge of Operation Pudding gathered. They'd opened gates to clear the path to the kitchen wall and blocked off passages, so there was only one way that Pod and Pudding could run.

"Don't do it, Pod," begged Homily. "There's other Borrowers what can do it!"

"Can't endanger others on my own plan," said Pod gruffly. "Look, just go to your spot. I promise I'll catch up with you."

He tugged on a bit of makeshift armor - made from walnut shells from Great-Aunt Sophy's after-dinner snack the night before - to deflect at least one attack from Pudding if it came to it. He tied his string around the beef, kicked open the gate keeping him from Pudding, and flung it out.

"Hey! Hey, Puss!" he hissed.

Pudding's head whipped around.

She stared.

Pod held very still. He had been prepared to run. He hadn't been prepared to just be observed. He actually couldn't shake the feeling that Pudding was judging him. _'Well,'_ he thought to himself, _'at least I know how to get out of walls!'_

Pudding's muscles bunched and Pod came to his senses, turning around and running as fast as he could, little legs pumping, and bit of beef held by string scattering through the dust behind him.

Pudding gave chase. Whether it was for the beef or the string, only Pudding knew.

Pod felt like his lungs would burst, he was running so hard. Left turn, right turn, somehow Pudding hadn't gotten him yet. He knew this was only because the passages were so small Pudding had to keep stopping to squeeze through which gave him just mere seconds of a lead.

And then he was there, in the left wall, marked with a single bit of red thread to show him where to stop. He dropped the string, grabbed a bent nail, and scaled the walls like a squirrel. Behind him, Pudding leapt onto her snack and toy.

Mickel and Hendreary yanked a hidden string, shutting the hidden Borrower gates to keep Pudding trapped in the left wall. Other Borrowers began scratching at the walls with their little tools while Homily had her moment.

 **"MEOW!"** she screamed. And kept shouting it along with the scratchings of the other Borrowers until they heard Mrs. Driver start yelling that there was a 'blasted cat in the walls!'

"Get Crampfurl!" Mrs. Driver commanded.

Eugenie nodded, overjoyed. "It might be Pudding!" she said.

"I don't care if it's Treacle, get Crampfurl before it destroys the wall!" snapped Mrs. Driver.

The Borrowers scattered.

Pudding was rescued, and Eugenie, who had been proposed to just that morning by young Hargrave, took the cat home with her so that Pudding would not be lost by the time she moved into her new house.

Mrs. Driver grumbled for the next week. "Just as soon as you train them, they go off and get married. Well, that Pickhatchet girl looks keen. We'll take her on next."

Homily had meowed so enthusiastically she had quite worn out her throat and couldn't talk for a week. Pod got her extra honey for her tea. "For my finest cat imitator," he told her.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Extras** : 
> 
> My outline and the image I kept in mind for dear little Pudding:
> 
>   
> 
> 
> As you can see Pudding has quite the Look.
> 
> I regret not being able to include one of Pod's conversations with Great-Aunt Sophy.
>
>> "Oh, it's the little hallucination again. Hallo, hallo," said Great-Aunt Sophy as she poured another cup from the decanter.
>> 
>> "'lo, old girl," Pod replied, sitting on the edge of the bedside table. It was within easy reach of a decorative bit of hanging material that made for a quick escape in the rare times Mrs. Driver came to see if there really _was_ someone talking to Great-Aunt Sophy.


End file.
